Instead,
I'm the community news director who'll oversee all editorial operations at The
Huntsville Times branch of Alabama Media Group, a new statewide media company
that launched today.

The
events that have led me to the Rocket City might be of interest to you. I
haven't been here long, so please allow me to introduce myself.

My
journey spans almost 20 years, but all of it has been spent fewer than 200
miles from my hometown of Munford, Ala. (If you've never heard of it, it's no
wonder. We just got our first traffic light a few years ago.)

After
high school, I enrolled at Auburn University and majored in electrical engineering.
The plan was to become a big-shot engineer, make lots of money and spend
summers vacationing on remote islands.

That
plan didn't quite work out. The culprit: sophomore physics.

After
failing the course twice, I talked to my adviser about my options. He asked me about
my interests, and I told him I had always enjoyed writing. He suggested I try
journalism. I didn't know much about the field, but figured I'd give it a shot.

After
one class, I was hooked.

I
spent the next two years learning under some hard-nosed former journalists -
Jerry Brown, Gillis Morgan, Nan Fairley, and the recently retired Ed Williams -
who told captivating stories about their time in small-town newsrooms as they
skillfully guided us through the academics.

They
taught me to appreciate the long hours and little pay, the rumble under your
feet when the press is running, the stain of fresh ink on your fingers, and the
great responsibility that comes with publishing whatever you write thousands of
times a day.

I
fell in love.

I
worked at The Plainsman, Auburn's student-run newspaper, but I needed an
internship to graduate and was fortunate enough to get one at The Anniston
Star, a newspaper a few miles from my hometown.

It
was the summer of 1993, and I was as green as a fluorescent frog. The editors
at The Star were patient but tough. I worked hard, and I learned a lot. So much
so that they offered me a job at the end of the internship. I graduated on Friday
and started work on Monday.

The
following 10 years were spent growing, advancing and falling deeper in love.

My
next job was as assistant metro editor at The Birmingham News. I started work
there in March 2003, the day before the United States invaded Iraq. Again, I
was blessed to have great veteran editors demonstrate the leadership needed to
produce strong journalism.

After
four years in Birmingham, I accepted the position of managing editor back at
The Anniston Star. It was a great job, once again working with a roomful of
people deeply committed to producing a daily newspaper. I had been back at The
Star for six years when I got the call this past summer about this position
here in Huntsville.

It
was a difficult decision, but after much prayer, I felt compelled to take on
this challenge.

Here's
why.

What
I thought - and what so many of us thought - was that we were in the newspaper
business. But the rise of technology has shown us that we weren't in the
newspaper business. We were, and are, in the business of disseminating
information.

We
spent years conjuring up different gimmicks trying to draw a younger audience, not
because we didn't - or don't - value our long-time readers, but because we have
to adapt to thrive in the future. But none of it worked because we were using a
relatively primitive medium to reach a generation of people who have never
lived a day without the Internet.

As
a result, our subscription numbers and rack sale numbers and advertising
numbers under the traditional print model all declined - not just over the last
couple of years, but over the last decade. We were trying to save the business
model, but we were losing the business.

That's
why you've heard so many painful stories in recent years across the newspaper
world about layoffs and furloughs and, in some cases, complete shutdowns as we've
wrestled with how to maintain a daily newspaper in a world that refuses to wait
until tomorrow morning to learn anything.

I
decided to accept this position because Alabama Media Group decided to stop fighting the losing
battle, and make the moves necessary to build a digital business model based on
growth, all while protecting the thing that makes us who we are - not newspaper
people, but journalists.

Our
craft is journalism, and that will continue. What's changing is how we get it
to you.

We're
going from being primarily a newspaper company to being primarily a digital
company, delivering news through al.com to your desktop, laptop, tablet devices
and cell phones.

We're
going from being a really good local newspaper with limited resources, to being
the northernmost branch of the largest news organization in Alabama, with
resources in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Mobile and Pascagoula, Miss.

We're
going from being a seven-day-a-week newspaper that publishes once a day, to a
24/7 news organization that publishes a newspaper three days a week.

Don't
get me wrong. I'm going to miss poring over the headlines daily as I scarf down
breakfast before heading to the office.

But
no businessman would attempt to operate on a model that has a shrinking
customer base. And, by the way, none of us would ask him to.

And
so I find myself in Huntsville, Ala., not because I've fallen out of love with
newspapers, but because I want to fight for the survival of journalism.

I
believe in fairness and balance and truth and timeliness and being a watchdog
over government and being a microphone for the little guy and all the things I
learned in the hallways of the Haley Center.

I
believe this is the opportunity of my professional lifetime, and I intend to
make the most of it.

I
believe Huntsville is a beautiful city with a bright future, and I look forward
to getting to know it and you better.

The
irony of this humble journey of mine is that it has landed me in a town
crawling ... with engineers.

I'm
Anthony Cook. Call me if need me.

Anthony Cook is the community news director over editorial content for Alabama Media Group's Huntsville location. Reach him at acook@al.com or 256-503-8913.